Bulgaria Ends Year With 8% Jobless

Bulgaria’s unemployment rate edged up to 8% in December from 7.9% a month earlier, but improved by 2.0 percentage points from a year ago as the economy grew and businesses created more jobs, the state employment agency said, Reuters reported. Some 261,015 people were unemployed in the Balkan country of 7.2 million people in December, 67,906 fewer than in December 2015, as a result of more jobs in processing and trade, the agency said. While the December 2016 figure was 3,035 more than in November, this was due to a “declining pace of business activity at the end of the year”, it added. The agency, which calculates the jobless rate based on the number of officially registered unemployed, said 13,553 people found work in December, 2,408 more than in December 2015. The finance ministry expects the unemployment rate to drop to 7.2% as domestic demand recovers. It expects the jobless rate to fall to 6.7% in 2018.